NEW DELHI—An Indian judge sentenced four young men to death for the gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old student last year, sending a stern message as the world's largest democracy grapples with widespread violence against women.

Photos: Four Sentenced to Death

Associated Press

Three days after finding the men guilty of murder, rape, kidnapping and other charges, Judge
Yogesh Khanna
said they should be hanged for having "shocked the collective conscience" of India.

"In these times when crime against women is on the rise, courts cannot turn a blind eye toward such gruesome crime," Judge Khanna said. "There cannot be any tolerance."

The December attack, in which the woman was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted with a metal bar before being dumped, naked and bleeding by the roadside, galvanized public opinion and sparked mass demonstrations across the country.

In the months since, India has been engaged in a national reappraisal of long-held attitudes toward women and their rights. Laws have been strengthened. In extreme cases, rapists can now face the death penalty.

An Indian judge sentenced four men to death for the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old student last year, sending a stern message in a case that transfixed India. WSJ's Tripti Lahiri reports. Photo: Getty Images

The Wall Street Journal spoke with her parents about why their call for the death penalty isn't about revenge.

"There's a willingness, an openness for greater engagement with what lies at the roots of this violence," said Kavita Krishnan, a leader of the All India Progressive Women's Association.

Victims appear to be more willing to come forward. Delhi police registered 1,036 complaints of rape through Aug. 15 this year, more than twice the number in the same period in 2012. Molestation complaints were up nearly six times, to 2,267.

But activists say cases of rape are still underreported especially in rural India, where traditional views are resistant to change and victims of sexual assaults continue to be blamed and stigmatized.

Just last month, a policewoman who was allegedly gang-raped in Jharkhand, in eastern India, did not report the attack until her colleagues, investigating a robbery in the same area a day later, found her photo by the side of the road and asked her about it.

After Friday's sentences, the lead public prosecutor,
Dayan Krishnan,
said: "Let's hope today's judgment will instill confidence in society."

When Judge Khanna imposed the sentence, the defendants,
Mukesh Singh,
Vinay Sharma, Pawan Gupta and Akshay Kumar Singh, all in their 20s, began to cry. Mr. Sharma collapsed and was carried away by police.

A.P. Singh,
who represents two of the accused men, shouted at the judge, saying: "This is highly unfair. You have acted under political pressure." Mr. Singh and other defense attorneys said they would appeal.

"It is a historic decision," said the victim's father. "When people took to the streets and stood by us, we became hopeful. Today's punishment will bring peace to our minds and to the whole country."

The family of the victim, who under Indian law case cannot be publicly named, had pressed for the death penalty, a call echoed by politicians and many protesters who have said the courts need to send a message that such crimes won't be tolerated.

Defendant Mukesh Singh, who told the court that he was driving the bus but didn't realize an attack was taking place in the passenger compartment, on Friday told The Wall Street Journal that he wanted to tell the victim's family that he had not hurt their daughter.

"Yes, I was to blame for driving the bus," he said, through his lawyer. "Please forgive me if you can."

In addition to the four men sentenced Friday, a fifth defendant was found dead in his jail cell in March. Authorities said he committed suicide. His family alleges he was killed. An investigation is ongoing.

A teenage defendant was sentenced earlier to three years in a reformatory, the maximum penalty allowed under youthful offender laws, by a juvenile court.

Past Supreme Court rulings have said the death penalty is warranted for crimes committed in such "an extremely brutal, grotesque, diabolical, revolting or dastardly manner so as to arouse intense and extreme indignation of the community."

At a sentencing hearing on Wednesday, Mr. Krishnan, the prosecutor, said that "the sentence which is appropriate is nothing short of death." He argued that "there can be nothing more diabolical" than the way the victim in the case was "tortured."

ENLARGE

Vivek Sharma,
a lawyer for Mr. Gupta, argued for jail time instead. "The court must bear in mind that life imprisonment is the rule and the death sentence is the exception," he said.

According to the judge's findings, the men raped the woman one by one. When she could no longer resist, they repeatedly assaulted her with a metal rod. Describing 18 wounds to the woman's internal organs, the judge said the men intended not only to cause hurt but specifically to cause death.

As details of the savage crime became public, angry crowds began gathering in the heart of the city, waving placards emblazoned with slogans like "hang the rapists" and drawings of nooses.

"Hang them in public," said Achuram, a 39-year-old cobbler in New Delhi who goes by one name. Mr. Achuram, a father to two daughters, said the death penalty would serve as a deterrent. "India needs to send out a strong message. We need to tell the world that we will not tolerate abuse against our mothers and daughters."

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But some lawyers said they were skeptical that using the death penalty in rape cases will make women safer. Critics also said that given the latitude allowed to judges, capital punishment isn't always applied in a coherent way and is more often given to lower-class defendants.

"I don't think this will make cities safer or reduce rapes. This is all just the state trying to show it is strong. Our country has a lynch mob mentality," said
Seema Misra,
a women's rights lawyer. "I'm not for the death penalty. I don't think it has any deterrent effect. It's revenge."

After a lull in executions that began in 2004, India has carried out two executions since November: the hanging of Ajmal Kasab, convicted of terror charges in a 2008 attack on Mumbai that killed more than 160 people, and Afzal Guru, convicted of plotting a 2001 attack on Parliament.

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